I've been out of the fingerboard game for a while and haven't really kept up in the last two years and I'm just wondering how is the fingerboard scene doing? I've noticed that mainstream skateboarding has died down where I live (Southern California - one of skateboarding's strongholds) and I couldn't help but wonder if the FB scene has also gone down hill? Or has it gone up hill? Thanks in advance.

I'm from Socal I've noticed too that skateboarders here tend to skate for a year or two and then try other things like biking or scooting. As far as fingerboarding goes, I've seen a lot more fingerboarders pop up not only in Socal, but some other places as well. I've been fingerboarding for a couple years, but I've only been in the scene for about a year now, and from what i can tell, i believe its getting better and better. A lot of new awesome companies have popped up. To name a few, Beastpants, Woob, Poli, WC, Private Press, etc. Again that's just a few. A lot of the great companies are still around such as Temple, Pure, Frost, OG, Emanant, Maze, Zink, etc. (Sorry if i forgot to mention anybody) But i have seen some companies close recently. Lowpro just closed, Fingersized just closed, and Nocomply might close. So its hard to tell, we will just have to wait and see.

The impression I get is that yes, there are a lot of new fingerboard companies, but it still hasn't expanded its presence. There hasn't been any media coverage, mainstream recognition, etc. And I'm not hating obviously as I love to fingerboard, but I'm analyzing this situation very biasedly. An expansion in fingerboarding would mean that average people wouldn't act shocked when they find out the cost of a wooden fingerboard and ask "all that for a piece of wood", large company names like Berlinwood and FlatFace will be recognized by more non-fingerboarders, etc.

Very true ^ It still has yet to be a "normal thing" i guess you could say.

fingerboarding has this kind of ''waves'' of popularity . by times and times through these years it had ups and downs , i believe it wont die completely
i agree that the scene is not as big as it was couple years ago

Yeah, the scene has died a bit, a lot of the forums are near dead, fbhq is the only one alive basically. But the core scene is still intact, with most fingerboarders still doing there thing. I myself have been busy alot this year, and havent been fbing nearly as much as 2011/2012. Im trying to get back into it though, and I feel that by the end of 2014, fingerboarding will regain that popularity it had a couple years back.

The online scene has been kinda dying a bit. Companies closing, forums not being active (ie. FFI) however a lot of people are still posting on youtube though not a lot of recognition. The offline scene is booming though as more and more events are surfacing, more stores are being built such as BRR store, Yellowood something and Oaks pateo. The most alive and kicking scene right now is America and Germany as always, UK is also booming right now some new scenes are popping up in Portugal, Singapore and Philippines. They're mostly offline scenes though

think about it.. do you want FBing to go full mainstream???
no
then every douchbag will have a fingerboard..
kinda like skateboarding every retard has one and its degenerated by society.
Im glad its stayed in its own little world...
It has grown and will keep growing.. you just gotta see the bigger picture online isn't much.

Trent Witcher wrote:

think about it.. do you want FBing to go full mainstream???
no
then every douchbag will have a fingerboard..
kinda like skateboarding every retard has one and its degenerated by society.
Im glad its stayed in its own little world...
It has grown and will keep growing.. you just gotta see the bigger picture online isn't much.

I really agree with this. It would be cool for people to stop hating on fingerboarding, but I really don't want to see a bunch of people get into it. I like the scene's current audience
Also, 600th post

People will always come and go but I think there will always be a solid community in the worldwide scene. I agree that maybe the online scene isn't as strong as it used to be but fingerboarding is going strong and it will grow in many ways as it will lose things like companies and people.

On October 11th, 2009, a small group of terrorists known as the Holdiban, hijacked 2 Boeing 747 aircrafts and slammed them into the Fingerboard Trade Center, knocking both towers down. This partially ruined the finger boarding scene. Even the stock tech deck market went down tremendously. We are all still recovering.

GunnerBoser wrote:

On October 11th, 2009, a small group of terrorists known as the Holdiban, hijacked 2 Boeing 747 aircrafts and slammed them into the Fingerboard Trade Center, knocking both towers down. This partially ruined the finger boarding scene. Even the stock tech deck market went down tremendously. We are all still recovering.

lol. Glad af Holden is gone now

From what I can tell, Europe seems to be better off with the "scene" than the states.

We don't really have much of a scene. In Indiana I know one person with an actual wooden fingerboard.

He was in my engineering class last year and he always had tech decks out. I did as well. I decided to buy a wooden china deck and convinced him to buy one too after letting him try mine out.

Anyway, yeah... Where I live it is impossible to find anyone to fingerboard with.

Europe has such a strong scene because of how close everything is, with the UK especially!
Within 2-3 hours drive I could easily be at a meetup with any of at least 10 people.

Also, 34mm decks is the current state of the scene.

Danny H wrote:

Also, 34mm decks is the current state of the scene.

even tho I make 36mm decks lol




they are old skool shape way diff from popsicles..


34mm popsicles wtf

Trent Witcher wrote:

Danny H wrote:

Also, 34mm decks is the current state of the scene.

34mm popsicles wtf

<3 34mm!  but wouldnt call it a standard? Im pretty sure 32mm is still most common.

deejaydestroy wrote:

Trent Witcher wrote:

Danny H wrote:

Also, 34mm decks is the current state of the scene.

34mm popsicles wtf

<3 34mm!  but wouldnt call it a standard? Im pretty sure 32mm is still most common.

Haha, nah 33-34's have been popping up for a while now. Just like when 30mm was standard and everyone thought that it was the widest that it could go, then 32mm started popping up.
Berlinwood then released 32's and that's when every other company did the same. Now it's like a competition as to who can make the widest decks O.o Anyway, berlinwood just released 33.5's so it wouldn't surprise me if they were 'standard' this time next year haha.

If the standard passes 35 mm I'm officially calling them chode decks.

I remember when BW extrawides were 30mm and I was having a hard time using them, hell that's skinny now. I still don't ride anything over 30. I refuse to haha.

As far as the topic, I feel the scene is growing so much! I especially noticed this while going on tour this past summer. First stop was near baltimore, MD and it was incredible to see that there was about 15 to 16 people all who didn't travel more than an hour. Most of them were less than half an hour away too, which is incredible. I know people say this a lot, but I really think the scene is moving towards being in person too. I honestly live for events like the rendezvous, or anything smaller really. It definitely keeps my spark for fingerboarding going. I'm not too sure how much I'd do it otherwise. It's still quite active online, though. Also, through owning a company I've received orders to places I didn't think people even knew what a fingerboard was. It's really incredible to think something that's so small on a relative scale is so huge, and we're the ones keeping it alive. There is no bullshit like commercials, billboards, signs, or any mass media form of advertising. It's so great that everyone is capable of sustaining this DIY community without the help of any other big corporate company or something stupid like that. It still humbles me and makes me feel fuzzy inside like that time you got your first puppy when you were 7 and it was so cute. Actually it's not really like that at all, and I'm not really sure where I'm going with this now. I actually am just going to press send now. Peace.

^^ lmao
yeah the scene is where its at
fuck corporations the system is wack

I think that people got the wrong idea from what I posted. I never said the fingerboard scene was dying or growing, I just merely wanted to know it's status in comparison to its status a few years ago :3. But I definitely read some neat things.

And to the poster who said he doesn't want fingerboarding to go mainstream - I agree it's cool to be part of something that's not really large but think about the possibilities that arise with a mainstream market and source of revenue. There would be fingerboard products that come around only possible with large funding and audience.

Danny H wrote:

Also, 34mm decks is the current state of the scene.

I beg to differ.

Xi wrote:

Danny H wrote:

Also, 34mm decks is the current state of the scene.

I beg to differ.

lmfao
50mm FTW

I remember using diy fingerboards 10yrs before Tech Deck ever hit the market..

WTF Xi! First time I've seen one in picture. FB wouldn't reach that size I think cause it's too big for anyone to flip easily.